The First Heartbeat

Today we went together to the Ob/Gyn. My first visit. Dr. Molinari is a private practice practitioner. His office was next door to the shot-giving grandma, on the second floor. E and I were there promptly at 10:20am for our 10:30 appointment. We sat in the waiting room looking through trashy Italian versions of 'Hello' magazine. In the waiting room was an ad for the Medison 3-D (4D depending on which literature you read, as if anyone thought that a live 3D video feed constitutes adding another dimension. If that was true, then all movies would be 3D...just without that pesky depth part to add the 4th) sonogram. On the adjacent wall was a Matisse print. Ahh, European sensibility. We were called in at 10:40 and I was impressed with Dr M's clean office and his adjoining examination room. he wore a striped shirt and a completely different striping tie underneath his lab coat. Even in Italy this is a fashion disaster, so I knew he must be a good doctor. He took all of E's critical data; date of birth, reviewed vitamins she was taking, asked about her last menstrual cycle, when she diventata signorina (loosely, when she became a woman....but quite a provincial way to ask that question), and a basic medical history. He took all the data down on a lap top *gasp* and then took us into the examination room.

He had the sonogram next to the examination table and a white parafan for E to change behind. I immediately noticed the DVD recorder next to the sonogram equipment. I noticed later, while examining the print outs, that he had a Medison SA9900. The examination room had more medical brochures and poster advertisements, but he had saved a couple of 3D images and they were inset in a Degas reprint. Interesting juxtaposition and that 3D image is awesome. So he got the womb up on the screen and took some measurements. I'm telling you, I learned more new Italian words in the 45 minute visit than I've learned in the last month. Camera gestazionale is my favorite. He could switch from a plan view to a elevation view (dork engineering term). Our little bean is now 1.47cm long. It was only 7mm a week ago. He turned on the audio and we could hear the heartbeat. The screen showed the wave-form of the heartbeat and he could freeze the image, like on an oscilloscope, and measure the period of the wave to calculate the heart rate. The little one is beating strongly at 160 beats/minute. He printed out a couple of images for us, took our 80Euro and wished us a good day.